Pubdate: Sat, 24 Feb 2007
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2007 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://www.tbo.com/news/opinion/submissionform.htm
Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Michael Fechter The Tampa Tribune
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1786/a02.html

PERU PLEDGES TO REOPEN INQUIRY INTO REPORTER'S '89 KILLING

Tribune Journalist Was Abducted There

Peru's president has promised to try to reopen the investigation into 
the 1989 slaying of Tampa Tribune reporter Todd C. Smith.

Alan Garcia's pledge followed a meeting with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on 
Thursday and came without reporters' prompting at a subsequent news 
conference in Lima, Peru's capital.

"We'll work with the justice system to bring to light the truth and 
so at least his parents will have the consolation of knowing the 
truth," Garcia told reporters.

Any decision on additional investigation would be up to Peru's Supreme Court.

Smith was a Tribune columnist who went to Peru on a working vacation 
in November 1989. He wanted to investigate links between drug 
traffickers and Maoist guerillas.

He was abducted from an airfield and found beaten and strangled days later.

An investigation focused on Peru's Shining Path guerrillas, 
culminating with the 1993 conviction of Jose Manrique.

A transcript from Manrique's trial, obtained by a press freedom group 
in 2004, implicated businessman and suspected drug smuggler Fernando 
Zevallos, however.

Zevallos operated an airline now suspected of covering a vast drug- 
smuggling operation.

He is in a Peruvian jail on drug trafficking charges.

According to an Associated Press reporter who viewed the transcript, 
Zevallos and two associates were concerned Smith had learned about a 
pending shipment of cocaine from the Peruvian town of Uchiza to 
Colombia when an order was issued to kill him.

Nelson has pushed the issue since reports of the transcript emerged. 
Garcia impressed him with his knowledge of the case and his resolve, 
said Nelson, D-Orlando.

"When I broached the subject, he didn't hesitate a moment," Nelson 
said late Friday afternoon from Miami. "He said he wanted to assure 
me that he was going to do all in his power to get this moving."

Garcia followed up his remarks with a news release repeating his 
commitment to "work with the judicial branch of government so that 
the case will be totally brought to light." He was elected president 
in June and previously led the country from 1985 to 1990.

Nelson also met with Peruvian journalists who investigated Zevallos' 
drug trafficking and Smith's murder. Four of their sources were later 
slain, Nelson said, but their perseverance led to evidence that could 
fuel a new investigation.

If additional evidence is generated by Peruvian authorities, it is 
possible Zevallos could be charged in the United States with crimes 
relating to Smith's death, Nelson said. Nelson has expressed a desire 
to see Zevallos extradited here to face such charges.

Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso contributed to this report.
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